Elastic type arrow projecting gun

ABSTRACT

A cocking mechanism for a crossbow type weapon includes a cocking lever pivotally connected to the outer end of the weapon and to a trigger assembly slideable along the length of the weapon. A U-shaped portion of the carriage assembly automatically engages and holds the loop type bowstring of the bow and forces it as the carriage moves, the bowstring being tensioned in response to the movement of the cocking lever from a position underlying and perpendicular to the weapon to a position substantially adjacent to the weapon and received between a trackway which guides a projectile. The U-shaped member is spring biased to an out of bowstring engaging position, and the U-shaped member is pivoted into an upright position to receive the bowstring when an extension of the U-shaped member engages the bowstring when the carriage is moved forwardly by the action of the cocking lever. A trigger holds the U-shaped member in a bowstring engaging position.

United States Patent [191 Shepherd 1 [451 Jan. 8, 1974 ELASTIC TYPE ARROW PROJECTING GUN [76] Inventor: Robert G. Shepherd, 1513 Sewanee Dr., Columbia, S.C. 29169 22 Filed: Sept. 28, 1972 21 Appl.No.: 292,896

Primary Examiner-Richard C. Pin kham Assistant Examiner-William R. Browne Alt0rneySolon B. Kemon et al.

[57] ABSTRACT A cocking mechanism for a crossbow type weapon includes a cocking lever pivotally connected to the outer end of the weapon and to a trigger assembly slideable along the length of the weapon. A U-shaped portion of the carriage assembly automatically engages and holds the loop type bowstring of the bow and forces it as the carriage moves, the bowstring being tensioned in response to the movement of the cooking lever from a position underlying and perpendicular to the weapon to a position substantially adjacent to the weapon and received between a trackway which guides a projectile. The U-shaped member is spring biased to an out of bowstring engaging position, and the U-shaped member is pivoted into an upright position to receive the bowstring when an extension of the U-shaped member engages the bowstring when the carriage is moved forwardly by the action of the cocking lever. A trigger holds the U-shaped member in a bowstring engaging position.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATEHTEU JAN 9 4 SHEET 1 0F 2 Fig. 4

PAIENTED 8 ELASTIC TYPE ARROW PROJECTING GUN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED ART The present invention is illustrated as an improvement on modified crossbows of the type shown for example in US. Pat. to Colby No. 1,866,926 of 1932. While the power train or bowstring components of the present invention are quite similar in kind and arrangement to those of Colby, the cocking mechanism is entirely different. The present invention is useful with conventional crossbows or with modified bows which use resilient members such as elastic bands for power rather than a wooden or steel bow. The latter type, however, occupy much less space and are therefore considerably more wieldly and versatile.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a device shown in FIG. 8 FIG. 3 is a section on the lines 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are views similar to FIG. 3, but showing the parts in the different relationships which they assume during cocking procedure; and

FIG. 8 is a section on the lines 8-8 of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a substantially conventional stock 10 includes a shoulder engaging portion 12 and a hand grip 14. Rigidly secured to the forward end of a stock are a pair of spaced parallel rails 16 and 18 which are joined at their outer end and form a trackway for the trigger assembly which will be hereinafter described. Secured to the outer end of the trackway is a cross assembly 20 supporting inner and outer pairs of pulleys 22 and-24 respectively.

The power train, or bowstring which furnishes propulsive force for the arrows to be projected, is in the form of a closed loop including an elastically deformable resilient member 26. The latter member has its center portion surrounding a rearwardly facing shoulder on the stock 10 and the two ends extend forwardly therefrom on opposite sides of the trackway. A bow string 28 has its opposite ends connected to the elastic member 26 and is most easily seen in FIG. 2 the bow string 28 beginning at one end of the tube 26 extends forwardly in parallel relation to the trackway until it trains around the inner pulley 22 thence back across the upper section of the trackway and around the other outer pulley 24, back around the inner pulley 22 and rearwardly to the other end of the tube 26.

The trigger assembly is mounted in a carriage 30 having portions which engage the upper and lower surfaces of the trackway members 16 and 18 so as to be freely slideable therealong. The trigger proper is identified by the reference numeral 32, is substantially L-shaped and is pivotally connected to the carriage 30 on crosspin 34. A spring member 36 biases the trigger 32 to the position shown in FIG. 3.

The remaining portion of the trigger assembly includes a U-shaped member 38 also pivotally mounted on the carriage 30 by a crosspin 40. A spring 42 biases the U-shaped member 40 to the position shown in FIG. 3. At the upper end of the arms of the U-shaped member 40 there are formed apair of aligned notches 44 which engage the bowstring 28 during the cocking procedure. A guide member in the form of a wire bent generally in the shape of a U is attached to the two legs of the U-shaped member 38 and identified by the reference numeral 46.

A cocking lever 48 which also carries a fore-piece 50 and trigger guard 52 is pivotally connected to the outer end of the trackway as indicated in FIG. 1 and is pivotal between two positions one of which is shown in full line in FIG. 1 and in the other of which the lever extends downwardly at substantially right angles to the trackway. A link 54 is pivotally connected to substantially the midpoint of the cocking lever 48 and also to the forward portion of the carriage 30 so that movement of the cocking lever from the full line position shown in FIG. 1 through approximately a angle is effective to move the trigger assembly carriage 30 from its rearmost position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to a position adjacent the outer end of the trackway.

OPERATION OF THE COCKING MEANS Referring now to FIGS. 3 to 7 inclusive, FIG. 3 shows the parts of the trigger assembly in the position which they normally occupy with the gun not cocked. Omitted from FIG. 3 for purposes of illustration is the forepiece 50 and the trigger guard 52 carried by the cocking lever 48 as previously described. Clockwise rotation of the cocking lever from the full line position shown in FIG. 1 due to the interconnection with the carriage by the link 54 is effective to move the carriage forwardly on the trackway. FIG. 4 shows the U-shaped member 38 and the wire 46 just prior to the time that the wire 46 engages the bowstring 28. In FIG. 5, continued forward movement of the carriage 30 has begun clockwise rotation of the U-shaped member 38 due to engagement of the member 46 with the bow string 28.

In FIG. 6 rotation of the U-Shaped member 38 is complete and the bow string 28 is resting in the notches 44. The lower end of the U-shaped member now abuts the forward end of the trigger 32 and the U-shaped member is therefore retained in the vertical position in which it appears in FIG. 6. Continued counter clockwise rotation of the cocking lever is effective to return the carriage 30 to the location shown in FIG. 3 but in so doing, that portion of the bow string 28 whichextends between the pulley 24 has been forced rearwardly and the resilient member 26 has been stretched in the opposite direction by an equal amount. At this point therefore the weapon is fully cocked and ready to be loaded and fired.

A shield member 50 is secured to the stock and to the forward end of the trackway in order to enclose most of the moving parts of the weapon. An arrow retaining clip member 52 is preferably secured to the outermost end of the trackway and serves as a forward support for an arrow nocked on the bow string between the spaced parallel legs of the U-shaped member 38. Pulling the.

trigger 32 obviously is effective to release the bow string 28 since it permits counter clockwise rotation of the U-shaped member 38 from the position shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 for example to that shown in FIG. 3.

It should be carefully noted that the trigger assembly carriage remains stationary during firing of the weapon and consequently the only thing that moves forward is the bow string 28 and the arrow nocked thereon.

From the foregoing it will be apparent to those skilled in this art that there is herein shown and disclosed a 3 new and improved cocking device and trigger assembly useful either with conventional or modified crossbows and while a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, applicant claims the benefit of a full range of equivalents within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A spring powered arrow gun of a modified crossbow type, comprising in combination:

a stock having spaced shoulder engaging and handgrip portions;

a pair of spaced parallel members, rigidly secured to said stock and extending forwardly thereof to define a trackway; cross member secured to the outer ends of said trackway and having a first pair of pulleys, one pulley of said pair of pulleys being secured to one end of said cross member and the other pulley of said pair of pulleys being positioned at the other end of said cross member, said pulleys being positioned for rotation on axes parallel to each other and positioned on opposite sides of said trackway;

a second pair of pulleys spaced inwardly of said first pair of pulleys and said second pair of pulleys being mounted for rotation on axes that are parallel to each other and are spaced inwardly from and parallel to the axes of said first pair of pulleys;

a power train at least a portion of which is a resilient elastically deformable member arranged in the form of a closed loop, substantially anchored on a rearwardly facing portion of said stock and extending on opposite sides of said stock forwardly along the outer surfaces of said trackway and then over said second pair of pulleys and then outwardly and over said first pair of pulleys with the last portion of said train extending between said first pair of pulleys is transverse to and overlies the upper surface of said trackway for permitting automatic engagement of the forward side of said last portion by said power train when said carriage is moved forwardly on said trackway;

a trigger assembly for engaging and releasing said power train, said assembly including a carriage a trigger pivotally mounted on the carriage, said carriage being slideable along said trackway and including means extendable upwardly from said carriage to terminate above the upper surface of said trackway when said carriage'is moved to its forward most position for automatically engaging the forward side of said last portion of said power train when said carriage is moved rearwardly on said trackway;

cocking arm pivotally connected to the outer end of said trackway and pivotal from a first position extending substantially at right angles downwardly of said trackway to a second position parallel to and received between the members of said trackway; and

a link-means for pivotally connecting at one end at substantially the midpoint of said cocking lever and at the other end with said slidable carriage, whereby when said cocking lever is moved from said second to said first position and back to said second position, the last portion of said power train is engaged by said means extendable from the carriage and as said last mentioned means moves rearwardly on said trackway against the biasing force of said resilient portion of said train, said means extendable upwardly from the carriage thereafter functioning to suddenly release said power train in response to actuation of said trigger.

2. The combination defined by claim 1 in which said means extendable upwardly includes a U-shaped member with legs pivotally mounted on said carriage and means biasing said member to a position with the legs pointing forwardly and to underly the train as said carriage is moved forwardly.

3. The combination defined by claim 2 including a guard member carried by said U-shaped member extending in spaced relation rearwardly of the legs of the U for engaging the rear side of the train as said carriage nears the limit of its forward travel the force exerted by said train on said U-shaped member causes said U- shaped member to pivot upwardly and rearwardly to engage the front side of the train as said carriage completes its forward travel.

4. The combination defined by claim 3 in which the spacing between the legs of said U-shaped member is greater than the diameter of arrows to be shot and the rear face of the legs of said member having aligned notches therein to hold the train during the cocking operation. 

1. A spring powered arrow gun of a modified crossbow type, comprising in combination: a stock having spaced shoulder engaging and hand-grip portions; a pair of spaced parallel members, rigidly secured to said stock and extending forwardly thereof to define a trackway; a cross member secured to the outer ends of said trackway and having a first pair of pulleys, one pulley of said pair of pulleys being secured to one end of said cross member and the other pulley of said pair of pulleys being positioned at the other end of said cross member, said pulleys being positioned for rotation on axes parallel to each other and positioned on opposite sides of said trackway; a second pair of pulleys spaced inwardly of said first pair of pulleys and said second pair of pulleys being mounted for rotation on axes that are parallel to each other and are spaced inwardly from and parallel to the axes of said first pair of pulleys; a power train at least a portion of which is a resilient elastically deformable member arranged in the form of a closed loop, substantially anchored on a rearwardly facing portion of said stock and extending on opposite sides of said stock forwardly along the outer surfaces of said trackway and then over said second pair of pulleys and then outwardly and over said first pair of pulleys with the last portion of said train extending between said first pair of pulleys is transverse to and overlies the upper surface of said trackway for permitting automatic engagement of the forward side of said last portion by said power train when said carriage is moved forwardly on said trackway; a trigger assembly for engaging and releasing said power train, said assembly including a carriage a trigger pivotally mounted on the carriage, said carriage being slideable along said trackway and including means extendable upwardly from said carriage to terminate above the upper surface of said trackway when said carriage is moved to its forward most position for automatically engaging the forward side of said last portion of said power train when said carriage is moved rearwardly on said trackway; a cocking arm pivotally connected to the outer end of said trackway and pivotal from a first position extending substantially at right angles downwardly of said trackway to a second position parallel to and received between the members of said trackway; and a link means for pivotally connecting at one end at substantially the midpoint of said cocking lever and at the other end with said slidable carriage, whereby when said cocking lever is moved from said second to said first position and back to said second position, the last portion of said power train is engaged by said means extendable from the carriage and as said last mentioned means moves rearwardly on said trackway against the biasing force of said resilient portion of said train, said means extendable upwardly from the carriage thereafter functioning to suddenly release said power train in response to actuation of said trigger.
 2. The combination defined by claim 1 in which said means extendable upwardly includes a U-shaped member with legs pivotally mounted on said carriage and means biasing said member to a position with the legs pointing forwardly and to underly the train as said carriage is moved forwardly.
 3. The combination defined by claim 2 including a guard member carried by said U-shaped member extending in spaced relation rearwardly of the legs of the U for engaging the rear side of the train as said carriage nears the limit of its forward travel The force exerted by said train on said U-shaped member causes said U-shaped member to pivot upwardly and rearwardly to engage the front side of the train as said carriage completes its forward travel.
 4. The combination defined by claim 3 in which the spacing between the legs of said U-shaped member is greater than the diameter of arrows to be shot and the rear face of the legs of said member having aligned notches therein to hold the train during the cocking operation. 